The Airplane Thread

[Jbrown7403]

I’ve posted about the thrill of landing at Kai Tak back in 1989 (sadly landed only once) in the past and I just ran across this new video that came out yesterday. Thought I’d share…

[Lady Jane]

XV-11 Marvel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missis...y_XV-11_Marvel

[Llarry]

The U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) is home to some of the best helicopter pilots in the world. The regiment, which is based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is headed by a general officer and has four battalions; two of them are at Fort Campbell, one in Georgia and one in Washington state.

The 160th, known as "The Night Stalkers" flies highly modified helicopters and also has a few UAVs:
-- Boeing MH-47G Chinooks are the heavy lifters
-- Sikorsky MH-60Ms are the medium lifters
-- Sikorsky MH-60M Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) helos are the gunships
-- Boeing (formerly MD) MH-6Ms are the light helos
-- Boeing (formerly MD) AH-6Ms are the light gunships
(the H-6s are referred to as "little birds")
-- General Atomics MQ-1Cs are the surveillance (and attack?) UAVs
The above does not account for the stealth-modified MH-60 that was used in the Osama Bin Laden raid into Pakistan; I assume those might also be in the inventory.

The units of the 160th spend a lot of time deployed all over the world; in fact, I believe it was MH-47s of the 160th that evacuated Americans from the Sudan recently.

I had a personal encounter with the 160th about a year or two ago. One evening about sunset I heard an unusual aircraft noise and walked out on my back deck to see an Air Force HC-130 or MC-130 flying over at very low level trailing refueling hoses with two Army MH-47s about to plug in for refueling (as shown in the third photo but much, much lower.) Wow!

[M-technik-3]

Pn that note they also load their own USAF jets and tie down their package. We (USAF) just winch their equipment into the jet. I have moved them about a dozen times in my career. Thinking they use Barney now as their primary airlift but don't know.

[Llarry]

The Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" was the first all-metal Army fighter. It first flew in 1932 and started equipping Army Air Corps pursuit squadrons in late 1933. It served until 1938. Some were provided to the Philippines Air Force and actually saw combat at the beginning of World War II -- they didn't do well against modern Japanese fighters.

This one has typical colorful livery of the 1930s.

[Llarry]

A number of Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard C-130 airlift units train for firefighting duties, in addition to their military mission, using a modular system that installs into the cargo bay of the aircraft and pumps out water/fire retardant onto wildfires.

The Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) are prepositioned at various locations within the U.S. for use if required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modula...ighting_System

[Lady Jane]

Boeing’s 757-FTB Catfish.

https://theaviationist.com/2017/05/3...alth-aircraft/

[Llarry]

The Gulfstream 550 (military designation C-37) with Israeli-developed conformal antenna arrays is proving popular with more than one buyer:
1) USAF Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft undergoing tests, and apparently a Compass Call-like aircraft for the Italian Air Force.
2) U.S. Navy missile range telemetry/clearance aircraft to be flown from Point Mugu, California for missile testing by squadron VX-30.(see photo)
3) Multiple countries (Israel, Singapore, Italy (pictured), Morocco) using the original version, which is a G550 used for airborne early warning.

Israel uses the same basic aircraft with different systems for signals intelligence collection.

Australia is buying a SIGINT G550 without conformal arrays but with a ventral antenna bulge designated MC-55A (see photo of development aircraft without paint job.)

I suspect others will also buy these aircraft for various missions, although the G550 is now out of production, I believe.

And we can't forget the many Gulfstreams used for VIP travel by many air forces.

[Llarry]

Some history of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat:

The F-14 came out of a failed fighter replacement for the Navy's F-4 Phantom: The General Dynamics F-111B, which turned out to be too large and too heavy for aircraft carrier use. Grumman proposed a fighter that would use the same engines and missile system as the F-111B and the Navy was interested, particularly since Grumman was an experienced and trusted provider of carrier aircraft.

The first prototype F-14A flew in December of 1970. 557 F-14As were built for the U.S. Navy, with the last delivered in March 1987.

The F-14A was hampered by its Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines. The TF30 was a first-generation afterburning turbofan and was only used by the F-14 and various models of the Air Force F-111. Particularly given the wide spacing between the twin engines of the F-14, an engine failure could be catastrophic, and some aircraft were lost to engine failure and subsequent loss of control.

The original plan was for a limited number of F-14As with the TF30 engines to be followed by an improved model with a new engine; this plan failed due to budgetary constraints.

By 1986, however, funding was found for the installation of a GE F110 (newer generation) afterburning turbofan and this gave the F-14 a new lease on life. The result was the F-14B and 36 were built by 1990; in addition, 32 F-14As were converted to F-14Bs.

The final variant was the F-14D, which took the F110-equipped F-14B to the next level with a new radar and other electronic systems. The Navy planned to buy 127 F-14Ds and convert 104 F-14As to D standard but again could not afford that large a program. In the end, only 37 new F-14Ds were purchased and 18 F-14As were converted to F-14Ds, for a total of 55 aircraft.

Relatively early in the Tomcat's career, it was adapted for the photo recon role with the use of a photo pod called TARPS, which was mounted in the "tunnel" between the engines where missiles would ordinarily go.

For the majority of the F-14's service it was a dedicated air-to-air fighter only with no ground attack capability, but it was finally adapted for attack missions with the addition of the Air Force's LANTRIN pod, which enabled it to employ smart bombs etc.

By the turn of the century, the writing was on the wall for the Tomcat; it was becoming too troublesome to maintain and the new F/A-18 Super Hornet was coming with excellent capability. The final Navy F-14 squadrons converted to the F/A-18 in 2006.

But the Tomcat lives on in the Iranian Air Force. The Shah of Iran ordered 80 F-14As in the 1970s and some F-14As remain in service, despite an American embargo on spare parts. Iran was the only export customer for the F-14.

[JJ 911SC]

They were in the running a CF-14... https://tacairnet.com/2015/02/15/the-cf-14-eh-tomcat/

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by Llarry

...
The F-14 came out of a failed fighter replacement for the Navy's F-4 Phantom: The General Dynamics F-111B, which turned out to be too large and too heavy for aircraft carrier use...

Had a supervisor turn an AF F-111 onto the final at HIF, over 12K feet high above the glideslope and very fast. In a short 3 miles he was on the GS at the right speed. He came down like a fully loaded Craftsman toolbox! I would have bet good money he would be a do-over.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

Had a supervisor turn an AF F-111 onto the final at HIF, over 12K feet high above the glideslope and very fast. In a short 3 miles he was on the GS at the right speed. He came down like a fully loaded Craftsman toolbox! I would have bet good money he would be a do-over.

The Air Force really wanted a "bomber" -- a fighter designed for nuclear strike. The Navy wanted a fleet air defense interceptor. Two totally different missions. The idiot Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, demanded that the two services develop a joint solution, but the Air Force really drove the design and the Navy configuration ended up suffering -- in particular the carrier suitability part which is an absolute given in a carrier plane.

The Air Force F-111 was not a bad plane, particularly once they didn't have to worry about the Navy. The electronic warfare (jamming) variant, the EF-111A, was a great airplane, but Air Force priorities cut its career short.

[Jbrown7403]

I want to do this!
.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by Llarry

The Air Force F-111 was not a bad plane, particularly once they didn't have to worry about the Navy. The electronic warfare (jamming) variant, the EF-111A, was a great airplane, but Air Force priorities cut its career short.

Here's a bit of 'Vark trivia.

There are no ejection seats; instead, an entire capsule containing both the pilot and the EWO ejects-- pretty much everything you see around the cockpit that's glass? That goes.

And? The control stick turns into a bilge pump if ejecting over water.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

Here's a bit of 'Vark trivia.

There are no ejection seats; instead, an entire capsule containing both the pilot and the EWO ejects-- pretty much everything you see around the cockpit that's glass? That goes.

And? The control stick turns into a bilge pump if ejecting over water.

Escape capsule

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by Llarry

A number of Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard C-130 airlift units train for firefighting duties, in addition to their military mission, using a modular system that installs into the cargo bay of the aircraft and pumps out water/fire retardant onto wildfires.

The Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) are prepositioned at various locations within the U.S. for use if required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modula...ighting_System

That last picture of a rollerized trailer would scare me as a load master. Too much room for error and and miscommunication while spotting it in for loading.

[Llarry]

Thousands of brave men served as ball turret gunners in the B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II. The attached photo shows how they went into combat at high altitude over enemy territory. Freezing cold and breathing oxygen in their cramped, vulnerable gun turrets.

[mdf]

There was a cool article last year about a photo of an F/A-18 around the speed of sound

https://petapixel.com/2022/05/16/nav...peed-of-sound/

Lots of good shots of airplanes (and motorsports) show up on his Instagram instagram.com/p/ClE6cg4yld4/?img_index=3

[Llarry]

Both the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force are buying the large MQ-4C Triton unmanned air vehicle (UAV) to augment traditional manned maritime patrol aircraft.

The USN's first squadron, VUP-19, was formed years ago, but from all I've been able to gather, has had only two MQ-4Cs for several years. They initially flew them from California, then from Guam. They repositioned them to Misawa Air Base in Japan for a while and have more recently flown them to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. A second squadron was planned but has been delayed.

In the meantime, the UAVs have been improved with what is called a multi-intelligence capability, which I believe means a SIGINT capability. The USN plan is to buy 68 MQ-4C UAVs, but they are buying them very slowly.

Australia's first several MQ-4Cs are flying and appears to have the multi-intell capability, but I am unsure of the UAVs current location; the RAAF plans to buy six.

The MQ-4C is a BIG aircraft -- over 47 feet long with a huge 131 foot wingspan. It is powered by a single turbofan engine, flies above airline altitudes at over 50,000 feet and has an endurance of 30 hours.

[Llarry]

The De Havilland Dragon was a 1930s light twin-engined design for commercial use. Here's a restored aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Dragon

[3.0L]

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[Llarry]

General Atomics has been in the drone (unmanned air vehicle) business for quite a while. Their RQ-1 (recon) and MQ-1 (armed version) Predator drone first flew in 1995. Armament tests were conducted in 2001 and the MQ-1 drone was used in the Balkans and the Middle East for years. It was retired by the U.S. Air Force in 2018 and replaced by the much larger and higher-performance MQ-9 Reaper, but remains in use by several nations. The Predator is powered by a 4-cylinder turbo Rotax engine and features 24-hour endurance, albeit at low speed. The weapon of choice carried by the Predator is the Hellfire missile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera..._MQ-1_Predator

The MQ-9 Reaper is an enlarged versions of the Predator with turboprop power, double the speed, a much higher operating altitude (50,000 feet max) and greater weapon capacity. The MQ-9 can not only carry Hellfire missiles, but also 500-pound laser-guided bombs. It first flew in 2001 and over 300 have been built for a large number of users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera...cs_MQ-9_Reaper

Both the Predator and the Reaper are operated remotely via satellite link, often from halfway around the world.